The United States has dispensed with diplomatic niceties and now simply tells its vassals and protectorates to get with its program or else.

Press TV reports that, “The United States has warned Italy against supporting China's global economic effort, called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), denouncing the infrastructure plan as a ‘vanity project.’”

“In a thinly veiled rebuke of the initiative, which aims to unite European and Asian markets, a spokesman for the White House’s group of national security advisers said on Saturday that Italy’s participation in the BRI would add ‘legitimacy’ to Beijing’s infrastructure project. Italy is a major global economy and great investment destination. No need for Italian government to lend legitimacy to China’s infrastructure vanity project,” spokesman Garrett Marquis said on Twitter.